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New to magic: need to fill spell book

I have been playing for a while but never played a wizard before, figured I'd take the plunge and try it. Nothing fancy, no PrC, no specialization just straight up wizard to 20. I want to focus on debuffing and battlefield control, leave the damage dealing to the glass cannons and BSF.

I just can't bring myself to dredge through page after page of spell descriptions and was hoping the vets could help me out here and point me in the right direction. Just the name and which book it came from would be greatly appreciated.

Re: New to magic: need to fill spell book

www.d20srd.org can help you browse the spell descriptions faster, with links from the spell list and summary to the full description. Find those that look like they might be battlefield control / buff, then read the full description to see if you want them.

On buffing, do +X buffs in the morning and non-stat buffs (haste, invisibility, etc.) in combat. Or in a buffing round if you get one. If you really have nothing better to do, use a +X buff in a buffing round, but still never in combat. It's a weak use of a round. Better to toss out a battlefield control or non-stat buff.

Re: New to magic: need to fill spell book

If you are looking into Battlefield Control look into the Wall of x Spells later on . Wall of Force , Prismatic Wall , Wall of Fire ; all of these spells will serve you well on the battlefield or the Dungeon (Actually Pretty much wherever) .

Re: New to magic: need to fill spell book

What level?

Random reccomendations that occur to me atm:

Mage armor or Greater Mage Armor. Everyone should have this.
Magic Missile. See above. Actually, Im sure someones made a list of all the truly standard spells somewhere....hmmm, I'll move on to more oddball stuff.

The orbs in spell compendium. Useful for...lots of tricks.
Create Magic Tattoo: Inexpensive mostly permanent buffs to the entire party for a single spell, a single skill point, and a bit of gold.
Power Word: Pain....if it hasn't been banned yet.

Keep in mind that you get all cantrips, so, any time you see a cantrip, write that sucker down.

In theory, spells take up pages, and thus, you want to limit what you put into your spellbook. In practice, this is often ignored, and even if not, it's ridiculously easy to get a book with tons of extra pages. I collect spells like a starving man collects mcNuggets from a dumpster. Many of them may only ever be useful once...but when it's the perfect spell for the job, it's worth it.

Back from a lengthy vacation from Giantitp. I've been dabbling with 3d printer technology and game design, PM if you're curious.

"World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimization."